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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Height dog or speed dog?

The flyball tournament was awesome. Both days were sunny and warm (a little too warm, actually, at 80 both days), the grass we were running on was dry by 9 for racing to start, and the host club did a great job keeping things going.

Now, most people look at the pictures after a tournament and have some amazingly compelling photos of a solid dog, elegantly, quickly, working. What I get is something else entirely.

I'm not sure if Pallo is funny looking on purpose, or if it is just a happy side effect of being a silly dog. He sure does do good at it though.

You may not be able to tell from the pictures, as my dog doesn't exactly look fast and powerful, but Pallo man beat out his previous best time.

In fact, he is well on his way to being a speed dog for our team, as well as a height dog. This makes for his fifth tournament, and every time his speed has increased. This weekend, this amazing, funny looking, silly dog, ran a 5.0 on grass in 80 degree weather after a full day and a half of running every heat of our 5 races, 5 heats each, per day.

I'm very proud of my boy.

I think, with our next tournament on mats and indoors, his time may improve even more. I hope it does anyway. The huge party I plan on throwing when we break below 5 seconds is on the edge of my mind. I keep telling myself 5 is an awesome time of a 9 inch height dog, but the lure of having a dog run in the 4 second range (even the top end of it) is there for sure.

Pallo did have a lot of lag time on the box, even with his amazing speeds.

I wonder if the box wasn't firing fast enough for him. His turns are very snappy and fast, and if the ball came out even faster, I'm sure his turns would be even better.

As it is though, my dog is pretty damn amazing. I am so proud of him, and can't wait for our next tournament.